Re: [Usability] Locating the mouse pointer when it is on the bottom of the screen?

[Calum Benson <Calum Benson Sun COM>]

On Sun, 2004-12-12 at 16:12, John Keller wrote:

> It was very distracting to have what would normally appear to be a 
> straight movement appear as an arc motion. That is: having moved 
> downward, the mouse was upside-down. Trying to move straight left or 
> right came off as an exaggerated arc motion because the top of the arrow 
> (now the tail) arced as the arrow rotated to stay true to my line of motion.

Yeah; hard to explain why, but I found it harder to use too.

My guess is that when I move the pointer, although I know the hotspot is at the tip, I'm really focusing on the easier-to-see 'middle part' until I get right up near my target.  With a regular pointer, that middle part still has a direct linear relationship to my mouse movement so my hand-eye co-ordination still gets me straight there.  With the LiveCursor, that's no longer the case, so I always seemed to miss my target unless the pointer was already facing roughly the direction I wanted to go before I started moving it...

Cheeri,
Calum.

-- 
CALUM BENSON, Usability Engineer       Sun Microsystems Ireland
mailto:calum benson sun com            Java Desktop System Group
http://ie.sun.com                      +353 1 819 9771

Any opinions are personal and not necessarily those of Sun Microsystems